The Economic Zombie Apocalypse

The end of civilization is already here. Most of humanity has been turned
into an unthinking mass of economic zombies that are looking to feast on the
still living flesh of the few survivors. This may explain the increasing popularity
or obsession with all things zombie. From fiction to pub crawls, the zombie
apocalypse seems to be on a lot of minds, probably as an unconcious manifestation
of economic reality.

We are more interested in the zombie at times when as a culture we feel
disempowered. And the facts are there that, when we are experiencing economic
crises, the vast population is feeling disempowered. ... Either playing dead
themselves ... or watching a show like "Walking Dead" provides a great variety
of outlets for people.

If you were to ask the participants, I don't think that all of them are
very cognizant of what they're saying when they put on the zombie makeup
and participate. To me, it's such an obvious allegory. We feel like, in one
way, we're dead.

The growing popularity of the genre, along with the popularity of these zombie
crawls, may reflect something deeper about people in general. Sure, the average
brainwashed Westerner doesn't understand liberty or economics. But they sense
something is amiss. They may not know enough to blame the state and its violent
interference for their economic condition. But many people probably sense that
they are economically the walking dead.

It started with just a few welfare queens in the form of lobbying corporations
and the poor who live on the poisonous drug of the dole.

Americans on food stamps: One way to measure zombie population growth

Not only has the number of dole zombies drastically increased, but now the
zombie infection has spread and taken hold of just about everyone in the Western
world. There are zombies everywhere you look. On average the individual American
has:

$15,266 in credit card debt

$149,667 in mortgage debt

$32,559 in student debt

But it's not just debt weighing these people down. What's possibly worse is
that they also have no clue how to generate wealth on their own. They may be
able to take orders, but starting new ventures, figuring out market demand
and profiting from filling it? Fat chance. They have varying degrees of dependence
on either the government or on an employer the government is trying to snuff
out under mountains of new regulations and taxes. Or they're employed by bigger
corporate zombie beasts.

The state with its fascistic, socialistic, communisitic nature will always
end up with a moribund economy filled with a bunch of debt-wracked, dependency-minded
drones, individuals and corporate monsters who can't adapt and can't produce:
the mothers on the dole, the laid off worker with obsolete skills on unemployment,
the debt-laden budding communist with a degree in medieval art or gender studies,
the "too big to fail" manufacturers who can't produce anything the market really
wants...

Zombie apocalyptic fiction reflects our fear that our neighbors will en masse
turn into hordes of mindless collectivist devourers capable only of tearing
civilization apart. Zombies just aren't scary as individuals or in a small
group. Sure they are sad and depressing, wandering around as murderous, dim-witted
shadows of their former selves. But they just aren't that dangerous unless
they vastly outnumber the local population of living humans. Thus the most
effective zombie fiction always takes the apocayptic route in which for every
still-living human, there are at least a hundred times as many ravenous undead.

And that's precisely where we are today. If you are productive and forward-thinking,
you are being surrounded by growing numbers of those who want to eat you. Take
steps to innoculate yourself against the infection and the infected here.

Gary Gibson, The Dollar
Vigilante's Editor, cut his teeth writing for liberty and profit as
the managing editor of the now-defunct Whiskey & Gunpowder financial
newsletter. He now writes for and edits The Dollar Vigilante. In his capacity
as managing editor of TDV's monthly subscription letter TDV Homegrown,
Gary insists on playing Russian Roulette by basing himself in the USSA
heartland. He braves arctic blasts and black helicopters so he can round
up content on how the TDV readers stuck in the USSA can best survive and
profit in the increasingly turbulent times in the morally and financially
bankrupt empire.

For most of his adult life Gary had the typical left-leaning worldview you
might expect from someone in his demographic. Then he read "Ain't Nobody's
Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country" by
Peter McWilliams and things started to change. Then Gary learned about silver
as an investment and his appreciation for human liberty comingled with a new
understanding of sound money and Austrian economics to give birth to a bona
fide libertarian.

A series of happy accidents took Gary away from the phone company job he'd
held since college and into the world of newsletter publishing. His economic
bias and breezy writing style landed him a gig as managing editor of the liberty-themed
and now defunct economic newsletter Whiskey & Gunpowder formerly published
by Agora Financial.

This job would bring him into life-changing contact with Doug Casey whose
writings pushed Gary over the edge into full blown anarchism (the real kind
of the capitalist sort). Doug also introduced Gary to Jeff Berwick. Jeff spent
roughly a year trying to convince Gary to follow the example set by both Doug
and Jeff and get out of the US.

The relentless government horrors of 2012, culminating with Obamacare and
the kidnapping of Brandon Raub, finally convinced Gary to take Jeff up on
his offer to join The Dollar Vigilante team in Acapulco. From there he plans
to travel the world -- or at least the freer parts of the world in Latin America
and Southeast Asia -- to get a boots-on-the-ground perspective for other vigilantes
looking for new opportunities outside the crumbling West in general and the
USA in particular.